International Conservation Research On Marine Living Resources

The major content of this dissertation contains five chapters, in addition to the introduction and conclusion. The first and second chapters can be classified as general theories while the third, fourth and firth chapters are specific provisions.Chapter one covers the international protection of marine living resources. Firstly, the special terms such as marine living resources, marine biological system, marine biodiversity and marine environment will be analyzed. Secondly, the concepts of protection, preservation and conservation will also be differentiated and analyzed, from an angle of the development of marine law. Lastly, with the combination of the trend of conservation and management of marine living resources and the angle of lex lata and lex ferenda, this chapter points out the feasibility and necessity of the international protection of marine living resources.Chapter two is mainly about the law of the international protection of marine living resources. The first section of this chapter begins with the sources of international protection of marine living resources from the angle of general international law. The second section introduces the principle of freedom of fishing, sustainable development and the precautionary principle as traditional or new developed customary laws, so as to provide a solid theoretical basis for chapter three and chapter four. The third section also integrates the relevant basis conventions concluded by the three Uinted Nations’Conferences on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the conventions or agreements reached in the Post-UNCLOS period.As focal part of this dissertation, the chapter three puts emphasis on the international law of the protection of fishery resource. The first part of this chapter sums up the customary rules, including the evolution of Exclusive Fishery Zone (EFZ) to the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the principle of sustainable development and the precautionary principle, so as to reflect the development process of the law of the sea, i.e., the freedom of fishing on the high seas-allocation of fishery resources-conservation of the marine living resources. The second part is about conventional regulations and the fishery organizations. The analysis of conventional regulations focuses on the global fishery conventions or agreements. In the Post-UNCLOS period, the role of Regional Fishery Management Organization or Arrangements (RFMO/As) has been gradually recognized by the international community, with the ratification of 1995 Fishery Agreement and other fishery documents. However, FROM/As is still facing various challenges of dealing the relationship between FROM/As and its members, and the relationship between FROM/As and the non-members. The last part divides the fishery disputes into international and regional ones:international fishery disputes include 1972 and 1993 fishery jurisdiction cases in the International Court of Justice, the Southern Bluefin Tuna case and the Swordfish case in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, while the regional fishery dispute focuses on the fishery conflicts among China, South Korea and Japan.Chapter four contains the international law of marine mammals, emphasizing on the conservation and management of whales and sea furs by international and regional organizations or arrangements. The first part of this chapter summarizes the customary rules such as the limitation of the "freedom of fishing on the high seas" and the precautionary principle. In the second part, conventional regulations mainly focus on the protection of whales and seals. Therefore, conventional regulations of this part include the treaties of international protection of whaling, namely, the International Convention on Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) and its permanent organ-International Whaling Commission, the 1982 UNCLOS, and the international or regional protection of seals. The last part selects disputes concerning marine mammals, for example, the Bering Sea Fur Arbitration case, the 2010 whaling case in the International Court of Jusstice, and the WTO Tuna/Dolphin case.Chapter five provides suggestions and opinions on the perfection of the mechanism of international protection of marine living resources. The first part of this chapter summaries the individual imperfection concerning the international conventional regulations, the RFMO/As and the disputer settlement, constructive suggestions will be giving separately. The second part provides suggestions on the improvement and perfection of Chinese fishery management, as well as regional cooperation among China, South Korea and Japan, based on the UNCLOS and the Post-UNCLOS conventions or agreements. In order to fulfill the ultimate goal of international protection of marine living resources, as conclusion, this dissertation points out the necessity to perfect the international conventional regulations and the structural framework. Meanwhile, special attention shall be paid on the relations between UNCLOS and other fishery agreements, and the relations between UNCLOS and other conventions concerning the international protection of marine living resources, so as to strengthen the international cooperation of conservation and management of marine living resources and to reduce the disputes.